SEOUL, South Korea — A consumer survey shows the popularity of the iPhone 6 has driven Apple’s market share in China to its highest ever while Samsung has continued to lose ground.

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech said Thursday that its latest survey of 15,000 people living in Chinese cities showed Apple’s market share reached 25.4 percent in the November-January period, up from 20.9 percent a year earlier.

That was a record for Apple in the world’s largest smartphone market, but not enough to catch up Chinese maker Xiaomi, which claimed 27.6 percent.

The market research firm said the market share of Samsung Electronics Co. eroded further to 11.3 percent. It was 22.2 percent a year earlier.

Kantar conducts a monthly online survey of the same 15,000 city-dwelling Chinese.

With lower home prices, more Californians could afford a home purchase in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the previous quarter, but the California Association of Realtors reports higher interest rates lowered affordability from the previous year for most counties.